Shares on Wall Street slipped on Fri, the last trading day of the year. However, 2021 still turned out to be a good year for US equities, with the S&P 500 Index finishing nearly 27% higher.
Early trade this morning (Mon) in equity index futures are pointing to a higher opening when US stock exchanges open for regular business later today. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up around 115 points, or about 0.3%. Those for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 gained about 0.4% each.
On Fri, the Dow lost 59.78pts, or 0.16%, to close at 36,338.30. The S&P 500 Index fell 0.26%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.61%. The small cap Russell 2000 dropped 0.15%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed at 1.5101%.
On Sun, Tesla (TSLA US, -1.27%) announced it delivered 308,600 vehicles worldwide in 4Q, smashing the previous record for the electric-car maker. Total sales for the year reached 936,000, up about 87% over 2020’s deliveries of just under half a million vehicles.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Feb) contracts settled up $14.50, or 0.8%, at US$1,828.60/oz on Fri. March silver, which is the most traded silver futures, rose 29.2 cents, or 1.3%, to end at US$23.352/oz.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.31% to 95.670.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed down $1.54 at US$77.78/bbl and $1.78 at US$75.21/bbl respectively.
European equity markets finished mixed last Fri, with the German DAX advancing 0.21%. France’s CAC 40 Index (-0.28%) ended 2021 with an annual gain of 29%, which was best year since 1999, boosted by a surge in the shares in luxury goods makers. Meanwhile, UK’s FTSE Index (-0.25%) closed 2021 with a 14% advance, its biggest annual rise since the Brexit vote of 2016, although it lagged most European peers.
Hong Kong will be open on Mon, but markets in Japan, mainland China and Australia will remain shut, as will UK markets, including the LME.